Thermodynamics of electron transfer in oxygenic photosynthetic reaction centers: a pulsed photoacoustic study of electron transfer in photosystem I reveals a similarity to bacterial reaction centers in both volume change and entropy.

The thermodynamic properties of electron transfer in biological systems are far less known in comparison with that of their kinetics. In this paper the enthalpy and entropy of electron transfer in the purified photosystem I trimer complexes from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 have been studied, using pulsed time-resolved photoacoustics on the 1 micros time scale. The volume contraction of reaction centers of photosystem I, which results directly from the light-induced charge separation forming P(700+F(A)/F(B-) from the excited-state P700*, is determined to be -26 +/- 2 A3. The enthalpy of the above electron-transfer reaction is found to be -0.39 +/- 0.1 eV. Photoacoustic estimation of the quantum yield of photochemistry in the purified photosystem I trimer complex showed it to be close to unity. Taking the free energy of the above reaction as the difference of their redox potentials in situ allows us to calculate an apparent entropy change (TDeltaS) of +0.35 +/- 0.1 eV. These values of DeltaV and TDeltaS are similar to those of bacterial reaction centers. The unexpected sign of entropy of electron transfer is tentatively assigned, as in the bacterial case, to the escape of counterions from the surface of the particles. The apparent entropy change of electron transfer in biological system is significant and cannot be neglected.